This blog will chronicle my comments and other critical articles, cartoons and videos. Time has come for us to put America first and Party 2nd. This page will have the good, bad and ugly of Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians alike, but will always offer pluralistic solutions effective June 8, 2014

Ten Republicans in the House have broken rank with
their party and are now joining Democrats in support of reauthorization of the
Violence Against Women Act. It's time to increase the public pressure on the
other 231 Republicans in the House who, in an appalling act of extremist
intransigence, are blocking a bill which should pass with broad bipartisan
support.

Women's lives are at risk, and there is no more time
for partisan delay.

Outrageously, news reports coming out of Washington,
DC suggest that Rep. Eric Cantor, a member of Republican leadership in the
House, is blocking a vote until a key protection for Native American women is
stripped from the bill.1

In response, Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin wrote a
letter to House Leadership asking for an immediate vote on the Senate version of
the Violence Against Women Act.2 In a cowardly move, House
Republicans are refusing to hold a vote on the bill so they don't have to go on
record voting against fundamental protections for battered women. Instead,
Republicans rammed through a fake version of the Violence Against Women Act. But
luckily, women's advocates in Congress have held firm and that sham vote didn't
work to take the heat off Republicans in the House.

Ten Republicans signed Rep. Gwen Moore's letter to
House leadership supporting an immediate vote on the real Violence Against Women
Act reauthorization.3 Momentum is now on our side. We need to shame
the remaining Republicans, and pressure them to allow an up-or-down vote on the
bill.

VAWA is an incredibly popular and successful program
that has reduced domestic violence rates by 58% since it was first passed in
1994. And it was approved in bipartisan votes every year since it was originally
passed — until Republicans began using it as a leverage tool to get what they
want.

House Republicans have voted for shameful bills to
redefine rape, defund Planned Parenthood, and to let women die. Still, despite
their appalling record on women's issues, you might think that Republicans in
Congress would have some concern for domestic violence survivors. You'd be
wrong.

Republican leadership in the House have the ability
to immediately call a vote on the Violence Against Women Act, and reauthorize
the protections that are making a critical difference. But for the sake of
pushing an extremist agenda through the House and holding protections for women
hostage in the process, he's putting the lives of women at risk — like the 34%
of Native American women who are victims of attempted or completed rape in their
lifetimes.

Hillary Clinton Wins High Popularity, Majority Support for a 2016 Bid

Kevin Lamarque/AP Photo

Carried by a new high in personal popularity and broad approval of
her work as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton closes out her
diplomatic career with majority support as a candidate for president in
2016.

Fifty-seven percent in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say
they’d back a run by Clinton to succeed Barack Obama, vs. 37 percent
opposed. That includes a broad gender gap – 66 percent support for
Clinton among women, dropping to 49 percent among men.

Clinton is expected to step down soon from her leadership of the
State Department, a position she accepted after narrowly losing the
Democratic presidential nomination to Obama in 2008. She’s demurred on
the prospect of another bid for the presidency.

Clinton’s fared well during her tenure at State; 68 percent approve
of her work, second only to Colin Powell among the last five secretaries
of state. (He managed a remarkable 85 percent approval in 2002 and
2003.) Similarly, two-thirds in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates,
see Clinton favorably overall, numerically a new high in her long
public career as first lady, U.S. Senator, presidential candidate and
top U.S. diplomat.

Clinton’s recovered from personal favorability as low as 44 percent
in April 2008, during her presidential run; she also dropped that low in
June 2003, when she was discussed as a possible candidate in the 2004
presidential race, and in June 1996, during the Whitewater controversy.
Those dips underscore the potential risks should she climb back into the
political fray.

In another sign of the challenges of a political candidacy, intensity
of sentiment is better for Clinton personally, and as secretary of
state, than it is for her as a candidate. Her “strongly” favorable
rating and strong approval of her job performance outnumber her strong
negatives, in both cases, by more than 2-1 margins. Strong support for
her as a candidate also outweighs strong opposition, but much more
narrowly, by 9 percentage points, 36 to 27 percent.

2016 and GROUPS – Politics are comparative, so actual support for
Clinton as a candidate would depend more than anything on her opponents,
in the Democratic primaries and general election alike. That said,
having 57 percent willing to give you a look (55 percent among
registered voters) is not a bad starting point – and the differences
among groups are telling.

In addition to the gender gap there are sharp differences between age
and racial groups, generally similar to Obama’s support patterns. Young
adults, age 18 to 29, support Clinton for president by nearly 2-1; that
falls to an even split among seniors. And while she gets 52 percent
support among whites, that jumps to 70 percent among nonwhites, a
strongly Democratic group.

Clinton does less well among nonwhites than did Obama, who won
re-election with 80 percent of their support last month. That said,
while majorities of white men and married men say they’d oppose a
Clinton candidacy, she’s backed by more than six in 10 white women and
married women – two groups that Obama lost.

Among other groups, support for Clinton in 2016 tops out at eight in
10 Democrats and liberals, vs. 23 and 24 percent of Republicans and
strong conservatives, respectively. About two-thirds of moderates and
six in 10 independents say they’d support a Clinton candidacy.

It’s hard to see Clinton winning 23 percent of Republicans in an
actual campaign; no Democrat has come close to that mark in exit polls
dating back 36 years. That’s another sign that, while currently her
numbers are positive, actually running for president can be messier than
it looks from a popular perch at Foggy Bottom.

METHODOLOGY – This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by
landline and cell phone Nov. 28-Dec. 2, 2012, among a random national
sample of 1,020adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 4 points. The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling, data collection and tabulation by SSRS/Social Science Research Solutions of Media, Pa.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Dear Fellow Republicans,I just had a panel discussion at the United Methodist Church, there was a unanimity about the Republicans living in Bubble. We need to bloody wake up and look how ugly we look to the public, we really need to pull our heads out of sand.

Congressman Allen West is a liability to the Republican party or any civil organization, he made bigoted statements to the extreme, it is repulsive to any American, except the pig headed among us.

The Republican chair from Georgia was inviting him to run from her state, what's wrong with her?

Don't we realize that a majority of us are moderates, look at what we did, we dumped the extremists like Santorum, Bachman, Cain, and Gingrich in the primaries, and the American Public dumped Nine of them guys who needed a lesson in math and biology. Romney was a good guy, but did not have a firmness to his character, had it been others, Obama would have swept the Republicans completely. Its time to listen to sanity, any public figure that treats a fellow American with contempt must be booted out of the party. Allen West should be the first one to get the boot.

By MUSTAFA DANDASHLY

The words weren’t uttered by an angry protestor or on some right-wing blog. They were uttered by U.S. Rep. Allen West in response to a Muslim man’s questions — at a town hall meeting, of all places: “Don’t try to blow sunshine up my butt . . . put the microphone down and go home.”On Election Day, Rep. West, a tea-party favorite, suffered a devastating loss to Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy in Florida’s 18th congressional district. West built his political career by defaming and insulting Muslims in America and, this month, American Muslims and their neighbors kicked West out of office. The Muslim community and its allies overwhelmingly supported Murphy with their votes and contributions.

West did not lose because the majority of the people in his congressional district are Muslim. West lost because the American Muslim vote made an unprecedented showing in South Florida. With Murphy’s margin of victory less than 2,000 votes, Muslim community engagement helped other fed-up citizenry stand up against bigotry and hatred. Ironically, the hatred espoused by the likes of West has helped these communities realize the importance of civic engagement. Civic participation through voting has helped the Muslim community put action to the urgency felt by the growing tide of anti-Islamic sentiment.

American Muslims finally have a seat at the table, and they have the numbers to prove it. As a relatively new minority community in the United States, American Muslims have struggled to find their voice and in making that voice heard in the political fray. However, in recent years, this community has seen enormous growth in several swing states, most notably in Florida.

American Muslims have voted both Democratic and Republican in the past, making them a large and important group in the courtship of minority voters around election time.

Florida was a key state in the 2012 presidential elections, with President Obama edging out a win over Gov. Mitt Romney by less than 75,000 votes. Emerge USA, a civic engagement nonprofit organization that focuses on engaging minority communities, specifically the Muslim, Arab and Southeast Asian communities, maintains a database of over 150,000 registered Muslim voters in Florida, with exit polls showing 120,000 of them voted in November. Of these 120,000 votes, an overwhelming 80 percent went to Obama. Sadly, neither party courted the Muslim vote this year, yet the presidential race could have turned out dramatically different without the Muslim American vote.

Stories like West’s are taking place across the country as American Muslims become engaged in the political process with help from organizations like Emerge USA. Many in the community come from backgrounds of political dictatorship and oppression, where voting may not be commonplace and speaking out against the government is particularly dangerous. Civic engagement organizations are serving a largely educational role as the community develops into the political powerhouse it can become.

As newcomers on the scene, Muslims have made great strides in the realization that voting is the simplest, most effective way to influence change in their own lives and in the lives of others.

Contrary to what West believes, American Muslims are indeed Americans. They care about the Constitution, they care about society and they care about domestic issues. A recent poll by Emerge USA shows that 47 percent of Muslim voters polled in Florida believe the economy was the most important issue. Foreign policy garnered a measly 8 percent.

This data shows that American Muslims are here for the same reasons as everyone else — to raise a family, to establish economic stability, and to gain a higher standard of living. What presidential candidate can afford to lose 150,000 votes in a state as crucial as Florida? American Muslims, welcome to the table.

Mustafa Dandashly is a student at the FIU College of Law and an advisor to Emerge USA.

Dr. Ghouse has appeared in over 200 TV shows and is a frequent guest with Hannity and Varney shows at Fox News along with others. He has over 1000 hours of Radio Shows of which 700 were dedicated to interfaith and pluralism. Over 3000 articles have been published of which a 1000 were on politics, foreign policy, sports and movies, a 1000 for interfaith and pluralism matters and a 1000 plus on Islam. In addition Mike has conducted workshops on Atheist to Zoroastrian and every one in between.

WHO ARE MODERATES

They are sensitive to what's happening around them and take the necessary action, they are not stick-in-the-muds. They are willing to place America first, party next.

Moderates are usually silent, but do exercise their vote and keep the radicals out. They dumped Santorum, Pawlenty, Bachman, Gingrich, Cain, Rudy Guiliani, Alan West, Sara Palin and others.

A few names who have demonstrated moderation at times are; Chris Christie, Colin Powell, Arnold Schwartngegger, John Huntsman, Condi Rice, Mark Rubio, Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal, John McCain - moderates are also characterized by self-criticism. No one know what Romney was.

'Radical' conservatives are characterized by jumping on any one who criticizes their party, they lack introspection, and are stuffed with me or you attitude, and rarely do they know what 'we' and 'us' means.

Moderate Republicans are distinguished by their ability to see a different point of view, and are the majority, a silent majority within the party. Its time for us to speak up before we get completely routed out.

Bush Penance

As Republicans we do not have the balls to face there realities of life, instead we curse and blame others. Bush lied to Americans to go to war with Iraq, We may blame Cheney, but the buck stops at the President. What was the cost?

01. Million Americans losing their Jobs

02. Businesses going out of business

03. Racks up 8 Trillion dollars in debt

04. Millions of home foreclosure

05. Thousands of business shut downs

06. Divorces

07. Death of 500,000 Iraqis for his lies

08. Death of 4, 486 Americans troops09. Thousands of women on the street

10. Add Afghanistan..

For what? We Republicans have to pay a prices from our silence when crimes against humanity were committed.

I hope some day he apologizes to Americans, Iraqis and Afghans. I don't understand how one can live with so much guilt and not seek forgiveness.